To be fair, it hurts rich women too, trader or no trader: "On September 28, 2007, the divorce between Evans and Craig Schelske became final. Evans will pay him a minimum of $500,000 in alimony over a ten-year period. Evans was awarded custody of her three children with visitation rights to Schelske." We are talking about her:
Agreed that men are idiots following their emotions when financial planning for marriage comes around, since emotions are men's weak spots. Women's emotions are their strength, while divorce lawyers serve as their logic. No secret there. Today, when women try to become men (and always fail), their bitterness is sucked up well by those attorneys. Seen it dozens of times in those around me.
I wonder what is the percentage of marriages where the couple signed a prenup prior to getting married?
You HAVE to go by the laws in your state. You don't say what state (country) you are in. I don't see how we can help you. Every state has different laws. I was divorced in Florida and I made out like a bandit. She got a digital camera and 2 fishing rods. I got to keep all my cash, investments, real estate, car collection, boats, etc. I was a nice guy and gave her 3 fishing rods even though I only had to give her 2. True story. There is no common law marriage in Florida. Not sure where you are. Laws are "living documents" in that they change every time the legislature meets. The law today may not be the law 15 years from now when she decides to take you to the cleaners. A trust is sometimes a good way to protect money. You really need to speak with a family law attorney in the state in which you intend to marry. It very well may be the best money you ever spent. Good luck!
I'm in NJ. I'm not sure how your ex didn't get anything but a fishing rod unless you had a prenup. I'm looking into the trust thing now - it seems interesting. If I create a trust and I'm the sole trustee and the sole beneficiary - is that a good way to protect my ASSets? I'd like to trade from the trust if possible. I think a trust is its own private legal entity so how would any ex wife get at it?
The guys I know who had prenups kept more of their own money than the guys who had no prenup. Not that the prenups were always upheld, but the guy had a better chance of keeping more with a prenup than without.
My advice... 1) Seek the advice of an attorney who specializes in family law and divorce, with some estate planning thrown in. 2) Have a pre-nuptial agreement drafted, and have your fiance go to an attorney of her choosing to review it. Offering to pay for her attorney is fine. 3) Maintain a separate bank account in your name, and have the bank add "LDP Separate Account" to the address line, so that it appears under your name (LDP are your initials, change as needed). Have her do the same with her existing separate account (this is very important - it must be bilateral and not just unilateral). You may, if desired, both set up a joint account to pay joint bills out of. You may, as needed, fund the joint account by transferring money from the separate accounts according to a ratio you come up with. If you do come up with other than a 50/50 ratio, it should be carried forward toward the future valuation of joint investments, should you part ways. 4) Maintain separate existing assets and property separately, including your 401K or other retirement and brokerage accounts. That means do not deposit joint money into the accounts... and do not withdraw separate money from them into a joint account. 5) If at some point, she has children, all bets are off and these tips basically get tossed out the window. 6) If you are wealthy, have a foreign corporation set up (I am partial toward Panama, due to corporate filing and officer secrecy laws) to bill you for the "trading advice" you receive... and pay their invoices on time always. 7) Encumber your property by taking out an equity loan from an LLC which is owned by the Panama corp. On the books, it will appear as if you have zero homeowner equity. However, the corporation may allow its loan to be subjugate to any other loans you need to take out, so you can still hypothecate the equity as needed. 8) I could go on and on, with auto lease-back, trusts and estates, and an asset management company that you are indebted to... but I'd rather you pay for professional advice if you truly need it. Another VERY IMPORTANT thing to keep in mind... regardless of the law, your divorce judge is ultimately the one who determines how your assets are divided. He has jurisdiction over any assets in your name, regardless of what anyone tells you... even assets in a non-revocable or charitable trust. He can reverse any process that you create, if he thinks the intent and purpose of that process/entity was to shield your assets! A judge here in the USA, however, cannot force a foreign corporation to give up assets (unless you control or are a part of it), nor is his judgment decree valid in a foreign country that does not have a reciprocal agreement with the United States. Panama. Invest in foreign businesses (that ultimately fail). Understand methods for transferring wealth, and their legal implication.
No prenup. It's a matter of what expert witnesses you can get to show what value of everything on the balance sheet which is required in every divorce. I know lots of people in this town. I'm not going to incriminate myself in a public venue but lets just say I know lots of people at all levels in the local legal community all the way to the tip top. It pays to have friends. When I first went to the first attorney I went to he was telling me I was screwed; she gets everything. I ended up with a team of three attorneys and five expert witnesses to testify what my assets were worth, and to testify what her assets were worth. I pulled a building permit and gutted my primary residence and let it sit like that until after divorce. The value of that home at time of divorce was the value prior to the demolition minus the cost to restore it to the condition prior to the demolition. See where I'm going? It's how the numbers work out and how the court is or is not willing to accept the numbers. Cars are easy to show as not worth much; boats too. As to investments, they had a value at time of marraige and a value at time of dissolution of marraige. But this stuff is for later if that time ever comes. Your objective at this point is to protect your assets from any future claim. If you establish a trust you are correct that the trust is a separate and distinct entity. But, just like if you start a company, if the two of you manage that trust, or a company, or any other entity, during the course of the marraige, it can be deemed that the increase in value of that entity is a marital asset. Your NJ Family Law attorney may tell you that you are better off with a trust that is managed by someone else. For you to trade actively in that trust MAY be interpreted by courts in the future as being a marital asset even though it existed prior to the marriage because throughout the course of the marriage you spent time managing it. And if you trade (manage) that trust and don't work, it could be argued by her attorneys that the trust was the provider of the family and is therefore more of a family asset because it provided for the needs (operating expenses) of the family. See where I'm going? You need a local family law attorney who is experienced and sucessful.